Shukumisa: Campaign Using ICT’s to Stir Things Up!

The Shukumisa campaign aims to stir and shake up social attitudes towards sexual violence, as well as the way rape survivors are treated by the criminal justice system. “The campaign also aims to ensure that more of us have a say in developing policies, laws and practices that affect our lives, as well as those of our families, friends and communities” adds Vetten.

Some of the activities undertaken by Shukumisa include the creation of a network able to monitor government department’s implementation of the 2007 Sexual Offences Act; the development of organisations’ capacity to monitor andadvocate; research and monitoring activities; development of law and policy; dissemination of information and raising awareness through a variety of means, including the media, to mention but a few.

Vetten says they have a website (www.shukumisa.org.za), which is used to provide an online presence for the Shukumisa campaign. “The website serves as a reservoir of information and resources on rape and sexual offences for victims, their families, friends and communities. This information encompasses the whole journey that a rape victim has to go through (what the law says about rape, what to do if you have been raped, going to the police station, going through the courts as well as information about rape in South Africa”, she elaborates.

Furthermore, the website also providesresources which community groups and non-profit organisations can use to assist rape victims and their families. Using Social networking sites to widen our reach. The site is basically a hub of information as it is interactive, allowing users to comment on issues and to ask for help. Being linked to a Facebook page and twitter group allows the campaign to take advantage of the popularity of these social networking platforms to reach more South Africans with the campaign message.

Vetten says that the Shukumisa Facebook page has over 4900 members and was inherited from an individual who has a keen interest in campaigning against gender based violence. She adds that using social media provides them with a captive audience to communicate the Shukumisa message. Although she couldn’t reveal the number of subscribers, Vetten says that the website and
twitter audience is still small but at the same time growing. Vetten feels that there is still more room for ICTs to improve the campaign.

They are currently looking into how they can integrate mobile tools into the website, to allow those who use mobile phones to access the information. However, they need technical support to enable these mobile tools to be integrated onto the website. She also noted that it will be beneficial for the campaign if they could train partners to use ICTs to communicate the Shukumisa message.

Furthermore, it will be most rewarding if all Shukumisa partners were to designate a person within the organisation who can liaise with the web development team to create content for online platforms and to assist in promoting the platforms more widely so that designated people also take part in conversations on online platforms and encourage their own stakeholders to do so too. Acknowledging the low Internet penetration in South Africa, Vetten noted that the biggest challenge in using ICTs in the Shukumisa campaign was that many of the partners are still learning to use ICTs and have not yet integrated them into their daily routines.”

“It’s early days yet, to be able to judge the outcomes of using ICTs in the Shukumisa campaign, however, it is worth noting that the campaign’s online presence is helping us connect with a new audience, for example, we are now communicating with more bloggers, who already have their own audience and can help us spread our message virally”, states Vetten. She adds that “the website and Facebook page provides an easy way for us to communicate the campaign message on a daily basis” and also helps to “pull together information about partner’s campaign activities”.

Being optimistic, Vetten concludes that “this is just the beginning of a long journey and the Shukumisa campaign will learn and adapt its usage of ICTs to make sure that it reaches the maximum number of people it can through ICTs”.